Sexing my chicks....

[Duckie]

The only split you can visually see is pied. A pied split is expressed by things like a stripe on the beak, or a toenail that is a different colour to the others, or a 'thumb print' of non-body-colour on the backs of their heads.
All others remain hidden, however (as a breeder once explained to me) females are less able to hide splits because of the different sex-linked mutations. It's the boys who can really carry hidden splits. Females tend to express whatever they are visually.


THis is a quote from Danielle from another gender question thread.

This is Storm, he/she has black markings on its beak. If females show exactly what they are, and males hide their traits, would storm be a girl?

I will try and post some nice close-ups of the others. None of the others have any specific toe, beak differences, other than Storm

[huskymom]

actually she seems like a normal gray split pied... could aslo be split whiteface asn some babies will be as Maya is split to it too...

and i say split pied as she has teh thumb print on the back of his/her head... she could be a she is she´s only split and as she has a darker head/face...

Ollie is a pied that may be split lutino if he´s a boy and might carry the split whiteface and whatever else dad is split to (could be girl or boy but only if boy he´ll be split lutino)

Screech is either a split pied or a light pied.. as he has some yellow crest feathers and a tail feather AND he has teh thumb print on the back of his head...( he can also be a she) and you can also see a dark toenail and a few pink ones on his left foot.. so I´m leaning more towards light pied than just split

Storm looks more normal gray and only split pied.. i kinda see a yellowy tail feather but that´s it

Kronk and Scar aslo are pied split to whatever and if boys to lutino... but if you see on Scars face... maybe because he´s younger.. but he has paler cheek patches... could well be fromteh split whiteface thing... it has been said that split whiteface chicks tend to have paler cheek patches... so with him being a pied I would think he´s one that took the split whiteface from Maya... Storm also has paler cheeks but if she´s a girl that would be the cause adn not the split.. *I think* ;)

and Last but not leat Gracie.. well... no mistery there.. she´s a lutino.. split pied.. maybe whiteface and whatever dad also is..

I´m not sure about the beak think.. my Maui´s beak darkened as she grew... adn she´s a light pied... Bea´s Cookie´s beak aslo darkened and she´s also split pied... so maye it does has to do with pied birds.. or normal grey ones... as lutios and whitefaces I´ve seen tend to have pinker beaks....

[huskymom]

If storm looses her dark face and the yellow wash she has turns actual yellow then she´s a boy... hehe..

has any of them started trying to whistle or make sounds?

[Duckie]

has any of them started trying to whistle or make sounds?

The most I am getting right now is chirping...no whistling or singing yet. Some of them I get little chirps, but mostly the hissing when it is feeding time and some squealing.

[Duckie]

I also noticed right now that Kronk has quite a bit of white on the back of his head, whereas Ollie and Scar have barely any at all...mostly yellow.

[Danielle]

MOST splits are expressed with girls, but not all. Whiteface is the most obvious example that comes to mind; it needs two genes to express visually so if the girl only has one gene she will be split for it, but not visually express it.

[tielfan]

If females show exactly what they are, and males hide their traits, would storm be a girl?

It's not quite that simple. With the sex-linked mutations, males can be split but females can not - if the girls have the gene they'll show the colors. The most common sex-linked mutations are lutino, cinnamon and pearl.

With ordinary non-sex-linked recessive mutations, both males and females can be split. The most common recessive mutations are pied and whiteface.